Tales of Herding Gods

Qin Mu, the chest, the dragon qilin, as well as the skeletons and bones that were flying throughout the whole sky fell down. Qin Mu’s heart fell into despair. He hadn’t wanted to make any sound so that they could avoid being heard by Xing An, that pervert. However, god’s plans superseded his own. All his plans could be said to have gone to naught.

Bang, bang, bang. They crashed into a pile of bones.

The bunch of skeletons in the surroundings cried out noisily, arguing who had shattered whose pelvis or thigh bone. Some were even seizing each other’s ribs, their voices incomparably loud.

Suddenly, some skeletons started fighting. It was unknown from where they’d gotten bone clubs, but they used them to wave around randomly, cracking one another’s skulls.

Unless Xing An was deaf, it was impossible for him to miss this commotion with his ears!

Qin Mu stood up shakily and looked around in a daze. The dense fog earlier had become much fainter, and there was more light around.

He looked toward the east and couldn’t help being stunned.

Within Surging River’s fog, a vast and obscure world of bones was rapidly forming. It appeared in the center of Great Ruins and overlapped with it!

“You are stepping on me…” a weak voice cried out from under the chest.

It jumped in shock, but when it saw that the one talking was a pile of bones, the chest couldn’t help becoming delighted. It opened in joy and ‘swallowed’ the pile of talking bones.

After its spirit was awakened by Qin Mu, it liked to collect these kinds of weird things.

“Ghost—”

The dragon qilin’s hair and scales all stood up on ends, and his body became stiff. When he saw a whole mountain filled with skeletons, this fatty flipped around and raised his legs straight up toward the sky.

When the chest saw that he was dead, it wanted to swallow him in as well. It started from the tail, but when it swallowed him until the buttocks, the dragon qilin gave a kick and said in a low and anger-filled voice, “Stop messing around, I’m feigning dead…”

“Fengdu, this is the outside world of Fengdu…”

Qin Mu watched the rapidly moving world. When it overlapped with reality, the mountains in the real world seemed to have vanished. It was incomparably strange.

His heart moved slightly, and he kicked the dragon qilin. “Fatty Dragon, get up, your ability to feign dead is not as convincing as that of Ling’er. If you still don’t want to get up. the skeletons will come to eat some meat.”

“Meat, meat!” Below the dragon qilin, a skeleton smelled the fragrance of meat and couldn’t help smiling. It opened its mouth and hugged the dragon qilin’s leg to bite into it.

“Meat! Meat!”

In the sea of skeletons, countless ones became excited and sprinted over in enthusiasm. As they did so, they created a skeleton wave that was as high as three hundred yards.

Whoosh.

The skeleton wave crashed down, and countless skeletons rolled together, transforming into a white bone giant that sprinted frantically, coming over with excitement to eat meat.

“I have no flesh, give me your flesh!”

“Leave a skin for me, my skin has already rotted!”

The dragon qilin hurriedly flipped over and crushed the skeletons that had pounced on him into smithereens. Upon seeing it, he almost fainted again.

The buddha light around Qin Mu shone brightly, and behind him appeared the apparition of a white jade buddha. The skeleton giant that was rushing over instantly crumbled, and the skeletons fled in all directions.

“Not delicious, it’s that young bald donkey from back then! Run—”

Qin Mu was speechless. He took out a gold coin and shone it into the sea of fog. A lone boat was sailing through there.

“All scram!”

Xing An’s voice came from afar. He had already taken back his eyes and rushed over by following the noise. As he closed in, he shattered countless skeletons that were pouncing on him with vibrations and blew them away.

In his fury, he razed an entire skeleton mountain in one strike and shattered countless skeletons. He pounced toward Qin Mu with overflowing might and arrogance.

Qin Mu had caused him setbacks after setbacks, and this made him unable to not feel true anger in his heart. All he wanted to do now was to get rid of this fellow that had made a fool out of him time after time!

Qin Mu hurriedly executed his teleportation divine arts and swept up the chest that was collecting skeletons and the dragon qilin who was shivering. He teleported toward the lone boat that could be faintly seen in the fog!

“You want to use the same move twice? Come down!”

One of Xing An’s eyes flew over and shone in the air. Qin Mu’s teleportation runes were instantly sliced, and he appeared out of space with the chest and the dragon qilin. They fell toward the sea of fog below.

In the sea of fog, monsters were churning, and they were abnormally excited. At that moment, the lone boat suddenly went to where Qin Mu and the rest were falling, catching them.

“Senior Brother Xing An, I trust you have been well since we last met?” The boatman that was controlling the boat raised his bamboo hat and revealed his bony frame, smiling sinisterly.

Xing An who had chased them to the shore was slightly stunned. He stopped then, unable to recognize the other. He asked suspiciously, “Who are you?”

“Senior Brother Xing An doesn’t recognize Daoist Ling Jing anymore? Back then, you chased me everywhere just to seize my divine blood yet you have forgotten all about me by now. How sad does this make me feel.”

The boatman moved his bamboo pole and pushed the boat into the distance while smiling. “This is the world of Fengdu, and Senior Brother Xing An is a living person, so please return. This is not a place you can step into.”

Xing An called back his eyes and took a step into the sea of fog. It instantly churned as the monsters stirred up havoc and became restless.

The monsters in the fog were incomparably strong yet he wasn’t afraid of them in the slightest. He continued to chase after the lone boat while saying indifferently, “If living people couldn’t step in, why could they board the boat? Daoist Ling Jing, you and I are still considered acquaintances after all, so it isn’t good to lie to me like this, don’t you think so?”

His speed was extremely fast, and even in the strange sea of fog, he was just strolling. The lone boat couldn’t get away from at all; instead, the distance was gradually shortening.

“Do you have money?” Daoist Ling Jing asked leisurely. “Money will make the ghost push the boat. The youth has the money to pay the boat expense so he can naturally board my ship and enter Fengdu. You don’t have money so you can only drink the northwest wind. Go back, Fengdu is not a place you can come to. There are too many existences you can’t offend here.”

Xing An gave a cold snort and continued forward. But suddenly, a huge monster rose up from the sea of fog and dragged him down.

In the lone boat, the dragon qilin was shocked. He hurriedly went to the side of the boat to take a look. Daoist Ling Jing raised his bamboo cane and gently pushed his head down. He smiled and said, “Stupid thing, some of the terrifying entities below are unreasonable. Be careful that they don’t bite your head.”

Before he even finished speaking, the sea of fog trembled violently. Roars of monsters rang out, and the huge mountains in the fog trembled violently. What formed those mountains were piles of white bones which changed into giants at that moment to flee.

The dragon qilin hurriedly lay down prone in the hold of the boat and covered his eyes with his two claws, but he kept peeking through the gap between them.

The battle in the sea of fog was becoming more and more intense, raising astonishing waves that even pushed their boat high up before it fell from the tip of the wave.

Qin Mu executed Bright Heaven’s Eyes and barely made out that there was more than one huge monster that was fighting Xing An in the sea of fog. At the sight of it, his heart trembled violently, and he let out a shaky breath. “Xing An is truly remarkable!”

Daoist Ling Jing who was now a skeleton pushed his bamboo cane and smiled sinisterly. “Of course he is remarkable. However, he can’t raise any waves here. The sea of fog is condensed from the grievances of the dead during the end of Founding Emperor Era. After everyone died, they couldn’t continue properly, so they condensed their grievances and transformed into monsters that block everyone who dares to barge into Fengdu. During the end of Founding Emperor Era, too many people died in Great Ruins so the abilities of these monsters are equivalent to those of gods.”

Qin Mu was slightly stunned. “These skeletons are the people who died during the calamity of Founding Emperor Era? Why can’t they enter Fengdu?”

“Fengdu only accepts useful souls.” In Daoist Ling Jing’s skull, two flames gave off faint glows. “There are useless and didn’t fulfill the requirements. For one to enter Fengdu, they would need to have abilities equivalent to those of gods. Even I had barely passed to be allowed to Fengdu. Thus, all those people could only gather around the outskirts of Fengdu, but not cross this sea of fog…”

Qin Mu had a weird expression. If it was the grievances of the skeletons that formed the sea of fog and changed them into monsters, then it was they themselves who had blocked their way inside!

What goes around comes around.

“King Yama actually had the intention to extradite them, but Fengdu is too small. On top of that, Fengdu even has to be wary of Youdu…”

Daoist Ling Jing obvious knew many secrets, but he wasn’t willing to say more. He was also a person who had died and could only live in Fengdu, situated in a bizarre state that was neither life nor death.

Qin Mu couldn’t see if he was alive or dead.

If he was dead, his flesh would grow when he entered the living realm of the dead. If he was alive, he would immediately die and cease to exist if he left Fengdu.

The movements under the sea of fog became more and more violent. It was obvious that the battle between Xing An and the monsters was becoming more and more intense. It was truly heart-palpitating to see.

One had to say that Xing An was extremely strong. Even when faced with the monsters born from grievances, he could still fight against them!

“This pervert…”

Daoist Ling Jing took a look at the sea of fog and saw Xing An and various monsters fighting their way up the sea. Those monsters reached the clouds and were even larger than the skeleton mountains and islands in the surroundings. Their offensive power was incomparably terrifying, but Xing An was even more terrifying.

“Human Emperor Qin, quickly go ashore.” Daoist Ling Jing’s eyesight was superior, and he said, “He will break free soon. Also, you owe me four Fengdu coins, so plus this time, it will be a total of five coins.”

Qin Mu took out four Fengdu coins and Daoist Ling Jing accepted them. He stretched his back and said with a smile, “They all have someone above them and can enjoy the moment they enter Fengdu. Yet I still have to earn money. When there’s enough money, only then can I enter Fengdu. If I wanted to have a seat in Fengdu, I’d need to pay quite a big price…”

He pushed his boat to leave into the distance, disappearing in the sea of fog. Yet his voice still came over. “Fengdu is interested in living people like you. If you help the dead do some stuff, they will pay you with Fengdu gold coins as a reward. Like that, you will be able to come back to Fengdu frequently. That’s what I did in the past…”

Qin Mu hurriedly brought the dragon qilin and the chest toward Fengdu.

Not much later, he finally came to the boundary stone of the living realm of the dead. At the sight of it, he couldn’t help breathing a sigh of relief.

At that moment, a loud bang rang out behind him. Xing An had finally broken free of the monsters and rushed out of the sea of fog. He landed on the pier.

Qin Mu’s expression changed slightly, and he immediately rushed into the living realm of the dead, hurrying forward frantically.

The dragon qilin also picked up his speed and ran. As he did so, he noticed that his meal master had disappeared and beside him was a skeleton that was running with all his strength!

That skeleton was wearing Qin Mu’s clothes and shoes!

The dragon qilin’s hair stood on ends and he gave off a miserable shriek. At that moment, he saw that he had also become a skeleton.

The dragon qilin’s limbs became soft and he fainted. This time, it wasn’t faked.

Qin Mu stopped and wanted to raise him up to continue running when he saw Xing An rushing into the boundary of the living realm of the dead.

Bang!

On Xing An’s neck, another head squeezed out, and below his arm, another arm suddenly popped out. Then, he grew four more legs!

Qin Mu was stunned, and Xing An was also stunned. There were more popping sounds then, and another body grew out from his body. More heads grew around his head, and it was hard to say how many bodies were trying to squeeze out of him. He grew dozens of arms, dozens of legs, twenty to thirty heads, and even bodies that were grown together!

Thump.

Xing An collapsed onto the floor with numerous arms grasping for something randomly in all directions. His heads were also struggling and roaring as though they wanted to crawl out of his body that was a huge mess.

It was evident that the consciousness of the various limbs wasn’t the same and didn’t belong to one person. There were some twenty to thirty people, and every one of them wanted to crawl out and leave!

“Living realm of the dead, living realm of the dead…” Qin Mu vanquished the thought of escaping and muttered, “So this is then the way to counter Xing An. His body was pieced together from the body parts of twenty to thirty strong practitioners that were close to god level. Upon coming to this world, those parts that had vanished will reappear…”

Suddenly, a huge bird flew over from the darkness and landed on the mountain in front of them. He tilted his head to examine them curiously.

“Is the one that arrived Human Emperor Qin?”

The huge bird flapped its wings and transformed into a bird-headed god. He folded his wings and spoke in human language. “Your actions have been exposed, and King Yama has been looking for you for a long time!”

Qin Mu was astonished. “I’ve done something? How come I did not know that?”